Household Debt Statistics 2026

The report shows total household debt decreased by $13 billion, a 0.1% decrease, in Q2 2026, to $18.8 trillion.

Mortgage balances declined by $74 billion in the second quarter and totaled $13.1 trillion at the end of June.

Home equity lines of credit (HELOC) balances rose by $13 billion totaling $459 billion, $142 billion above the low reached in Q1 2022.

Credit card balances rose by $21 billion and stood at $1.26 trillion, and auto loan balances increased by $28 billion to $1.71 trillion.

Credit card balances rose by $21 billion and stood at $1.26 trillion, and auto loan balances increased by $28 billion to $1.71 trillion.

Student loan balances decreased by $7 billion and stood at $1.65 trillion.

The pace of mortgage originations was largely steady with $505 billion newly originated in Q2 2026.

Auto loan originations picked up with $211 billion in new auto loans appearing this quarter.

Americans owed $18.57 trillion in total debt as of September 2025, according to Experian data.

Consumer access to credit continued to expand in Q2 2026, with just under 262 million consumers carrying a credit balance.

In the second quarter, household debt increased by 5.0% as the pace of mortgage borrowing picked up and nonmortgage consumer credit continued to grow at a moderate pace (figure 5).

The ratio of household debt to DPI (figure 6) remained flat at 0.90, near its lowest level since the late 1990s (excluding the pandemic-related income effects in 2020 and 2021).

The median household wealth in 2024 was $204,900.

For debtors, the median leverage ratio—a family’s total debt relative to its total assets—was 26.9 percent, continuing the steady decline seen since the 2013 survey.

However, the median debt payment-to-income ratio was 15.4 percent, up 2.0 percentage points from 2022, which is an increase that may be related to the concurrent increase in interest rates for mortgages and consumer loans.

The fraction of families with debt payment-to-income ratios greater than 40 percent, which are families with particularly high debt payment obligations relative to their incomes, increased from 6.5 to 8.6 percent, a level last seen in the 2013 survey.

In August, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.9 percent.

In 2025, 45 percent of credit card owners said they carried a balance at least once during the prior 12 months, down 12 percentage points over the past decade (figure 32).

Payment behavior is consistent with this interpretation: The share of accounts making a full payment on card balances reached 37 percent, matching the pandemic-era peak in the second quarter of 2021, when fiscal stimulus and elevated household savings supported consumers’ ability to pay down card balances.

Specifically, large banks have grown their share of newly originated accounts belonging to borrowers with credit scores below 660 — rising from 16.1 percent in the second quarter of 2025 to 18.5 percent in the second quarter of 2026.

Personal loan balances grew 7.6% in 2025, totalling $597.6 billion in 2025.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) use edged up 1 percentage point to 16 percent of all adults.

A total of 51% have used installment plans for online purchases, while 48% say they never have.

Outstanding personal loan balances reached a record $281 billion, up 9.6% YoY.

Aggregate delinquency rates improved slightly in Q2 2026, with 4.7% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency.

The rate of severe delinquency, defined as 90 or more days past due (accounts-based), on mortgages held by large banks stood at 0.86 percent in the second quarter of 2026.

In 2025, 55 percent of adults said they had set aside money for three months of expenses in an emergency savings or “rainy day” fund—unchanged from 2024 but down from a high of 59 percent in 2021.

Twenty-three percent of renters reported that they had been behind on their rent at some point in the past year, up 2 percentage points from 2024 and 6 percentage points since 2021.

Americans’ financial outlook in 2026 is also historically poor, with a record 55% now saying their financial situation is getting worse.

This is followed by those saying they have too much debt generally (6%) or on credit cards specifically (1%).

60+ DPD borrower-level mortgage delinquency reached 1.56% in Q2 2026, up 29 bps YoY although edging down for the quarter.

Among all consumers, the average total debt burden was $105,444 in September 2025, a slight increase from 2024.

In 2024, 53.5 percent of households had some unsecured debt.

Credit card debt was the most common form of unsecured debt, held by 40.0 percent of households, with a median balance of $5,000.

Student loans were held by 17.8 percent of households and had the highest median balance at $23,800.

Excluding mortgage debt, the average debt balance fell 3.3% in 2025 to $21,603.

In 2025, 32.1 percent of families held vehicle loans, down 2.6 percentage points since 2022.

Eighteen percent of adults had debt from their own medical care or that of a family member (not necessarily from the past year). The share with outstanding medical debt has ranged from 15 to 18 percent each year since the question was first asked in 2019.

At the same time, household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income declined from 178.6% to 176.4%, the largest drop since the third quarter of 2024.

Households' ability to repay their debts, as measured by the debt service ratio, improved in the second quarter of 2026, decreasing to 14.52%; the ratio peaked at 15.16% in the first quarter of 2023.

Chart 2 Household credit market debt, seasonally adjusted flows Growth in household credit market debt outpaced by income gains The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt rose to $3,280.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026.

The share of borrowers who are late by more than 60 days on at least one account has been broadly stable at about 2.5% for people without a mortgage and 1.3% for mortgage holders (Chart 6).

The Household debt to GDP ratio (Chart 5.1) has fallen, as has the household debt to income ratio to around 130%, relatively low compared to the average level since 2000 of 155%.

The share of post-tax household income spent on mortgage repayments (debt-servicing ratio (DSR)) was broadly flat at 7.5% at the end of 2025.

Nearly 750,000 households that are paying less than 3% interest will be rolling off fixes in 2026 and will see an average increase of £170 per month in repayments.

Some of the key findings from the latest Statistics Yearbook include: 163,916 new clients completed their first debt advice session in 2025

Clients’ average arrears and unsecured debt amounts increased from £17,936 in 2024, to £19,701 in 2025

Net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals decreased to £1.9 billion in September, from £2.7 billion in August, slightly below the previous 6-month average of £2.1 billion.

Total financial assets of households in the EU valued at €42 006 billion in 2025, 4.2 times higher than their financial liabilities, which were valued at €10 045 billion.

The EU recorded growth in 2025 of 5.8% for assets and 3.3% for liabilities.

A little over 1 per cent of variable-rate owner-occupier borrowers were estimated to be experiencing a cash flow shortfall as at the end of 2025 (Graph 2.2).